Forgotten Embraces
by Homura Bakura
Summary: [complete] "Even if millennia pass between us, let's always find each other again, okay?" - A series of Vaseshipping oneshots for Vaseshipping Week
1. Voice

**My contribution to Vaseshipping Week! :D Check out the tumblr vaseshippingweek because it's awesome and you should all write more Vaseshipping. Or draw it, or make playlists about it, or make vids or edits, idc just alllllll of the Vaseshipping**

 **The first prompt was Past, Present, Future**

* * *

 _My past is something that no longer exists for me._

Do you remember that we used to throw pebbles into the Nile to see if we could get them inside of the lotus flowers? I was always the best at it; at least, until we decided to give the flowers points depending on how far they were. As soon as it was a game that could be won, you won, of course.

 _I wish I could remember. There are—were—important things. Things I have to remember. Something about flowers, I think._

I was the first one that started hiding in vases, because I was tiny, and you were so good at finding me, but not very good at climbing things. So I would clamber up to the pillars and snuggle inside the vase tucked in a high nook, and that was the only way I could beat you at hide-and-seek. You did like winning things, didn't you?

 _My present is, honestly, a mess. It's no wonder I can't remember my past when the world is constantly on the verge of ending._

I wish I could get out of here and go down to where you are. I feel so useless up here, looking down at you. You're really such a dork, aren't you? Getting yourself into trouble all the time—I'm supposed to be the one that gets you into trouble. It's not fair that you find trouble all by yourself.

 _There are so many things happening. So many things. I can't focus. I'll look down at the cards on my Duel Disk and then for a brief, glorious moment I think I can remember something. I feel like—maybe I can remember_ her _. Whoever...whoever she is._

I'm not being very subtle, you know? You never used to be this forgetful. You always remembered everything that the teacher said. Nerd. But honestly, I'm doing my best here...I'm trying so hard to help. All I can do is send half of my soul down to help you but you still don't...remember me...was I...not important enough...?

 _Sometimes at the edge of emotion I think I can hear her. I still don't know who she is. I just know that there's a her, and that she exists, and that she's important. Sometimes...sometimes I think I can hear you. Whispering. A running commentary to my actions._

 _I am_ not _a nerd._

 _...I_ can _hear you, can't I?_

Please. Please hear me. Please come back to me. I'm so—I'm so tired of waiting. You always promised you'd never make me wait ever. Because you know how I get. Don't you? You know how I start to bounce and fiddle with things when I'm bored of waiting and that's when I blow things up. Don't—don't make me wait. Please...please don't make me wait anymore. I miss you. Gods, I miss you. Please come back.

 _The future frightens me. What am I going to find at the end of this road? Who am I going to become?_

 _I am afraid. I am so afraid. I feel—alone. There is no one from my past that is here that can tell me who I was. I'm left to imagine the worst._

You aren't the worst. Oh gods, please don't think that. You were—you were everything. To all of us. You were the best person I ever knew. I can tell you. I can tell you all about who you were, who you are, and who you're going to be. You're perfect. That's what you are. You're the only thing that I've ever wanted more than anything and I—I need you. Please come back. I'm waiting, stupidhead.

 _I am not a stupidhead._

You are too.

 _You're the only stupidhead I see around here._

You _don't_ see me, though.

 _I think I will, soon...I can feel it. The door is calling to me. He'll beat me, soon._

You, lose a game? I'm not sure I can imagine that.

 _It happens, from time to time. I always lost to you when it was a race or something._

That's cause you're a wimp. Wait...you remember that?

 _I think so._

You're coming home, aren't you?

 _I guess the future is closer than I thought._

I...I missed you so much. I can't wait to see you again. You know I'm going to tackle, you right? This has been building up for a long time

 _I kind of figured as much. Give me a second to brace myself, at least?_

Deal.

 _I can't wait to see you again._

Me too.

 _See you soon._


	2. Even if You Break Tomorrow

**I am late... second prompt is Loneliness.**

* * *

This place was not supposed to be lonely.

These halls were not supposed to swallow her breaths with their cavernous darkness. The pillars were not supposed to be silent sentinels oblivious to her grief. The blooming gardens were supposed to be bright, cheerful, welcoming—not a stab to the heart and a rock in the throat.

There is nowhere she can go to escape the loneliness. No where she can hide where it won't creep on her. Because every hiding place, every nook, every cranny of this place is filled with the emptiness of him. The fact that he isn't there. They mapped this whole place, hand in hand, found its secrets and shared them; there was nothing in this palace that they did not find together.

She can pull herself into a vase to hide her tears from pitying gazes, but it becomes gaping empty around her from the lack of him pressed awkwardly against her, limbs tangled together. She can climb to the roof and try to reach for the stars for solace but it will be only be stained with the fact that he is not there lying on the cool stones beside her. She can snuggle herself into the corner of the kitchen behind the flour bags and try to drown herself in the scents that no longer interest her but he is not there snuggled beside her ready to perform their daring plan to steal all of the honey cakes.

The palace is made of loneliness, now. Without his warmth at her side or his half-hearted moaning when she snuck him out of classes or his exasperated smile every time she did something huge and loud and reckless that quickly turned into an excited smile because he wanted to join in now—without all of that, this place was...

Nothing.

Empty.

A palace built on the stones of loneliness and loss. A palace as wide and cavernous and empty as the hole growing in her heart.

There isn't an escape. How long will it be before this breaks her? Before she is dashed against the cornerstones of grief and internal screaming and pain and heartache? She can't live in this lonely palace. But there is nowhere else for her to go.

So she waits. She scales the vines to his balcony and clambers over the railing and slides into the cool darkness of his room with the door locked because not even Set can bring himself to go in there even though technically these should be his quarters now. She crawls into his cold, unused bed, pretends that lump in the covers is him and she's just had a bad dream about him being gone and she's coming to snuggle with him like she always does when she has a bad dream. She pulls herself under the covers and buries her head beneath the pillow and breathes in the fading remains of his scent and _wishes wishes wishes_.

Someday, will this palace be made of laughter and happiness once again?


	3. Energizing Shower

**Prompt #3 was Atem, Mana, Mahad**

* * *

"Temmy, Mahad, look, look, LOOK! _RAIN!_ "

Mana exploded out of the covered chariot despite Mahad's best attempts to grab her. Atem had to laugh at his put-upon expression.

"Don't you realize by now there's no point in trying to stop her?" Atem laughed.

"That doesn't mean I should stop trying," Mahad grumbled. "Otherwise, Set will start to mutter at me again, and that's just more annoying than anything."

Atem laughed again and grabbed Mahad's hand.

"Come on," he said. "Let's go see what's gotten her excited."

"Atem, you're technically not supposed to leave the safety of the chariot..."

"And miss out on the rain? No thank you."

Mahad frowned, but Atem just tugged on his arm, noticing how half hearted the expression was.

"Come oooon, Mahad. You don't have to be the stiff priest yet, and I don't have to be the stiff pharaoh. Let's have some fun, take a page out of Mana's book!"

"You don't need to be told to take a page out of Mana's book," Mahad said, raising an eyebrow. But he smiled, and gave in, allowing Atem to tug him out of the chariot and onto the warm market streets.

Mana was just standing there, her arms spread wide and her face turned up towards the sky, eyes closed, smiling as the tiny, tiny drops of barely noticeable rain drizzled across her skin.

Atem himself drew in a breath and closed his eyes at the feel of the little droplets on his skin, barely more than a mist drifting down from the sky. Even Mahad stared up at the mostly clear sky with just a few large enough clouds to hold water, smiling.

The pair walked over to stand beside Mana, staring up into the rain. She dropped her arms back to her sides so that they could stand beside her more easily, but did not open her eyes.

"I wish it did this more often," Mana said.

"Yeah," Atem said, unconsciously twining his fingers into hers as though it was natural that his hand was there. Mahad couldn't help but smile.

He put a hand on each of their shoulders, standing behind them as he stared up at the sky.

"It is very refreshing," he said. "But if it gets too hard, we'll have to deal with a flash flood like from three years ago."

"I thought that was fun," said Mana.

"You weren't a farmer that lost most of their crops."

Mana grimaced and ducked her head sheepishly. Her fingers tightened slightly around Atem's.

Mahad smiled as he squeezed their shoulders.

"But yes," he said. "It is nice to see the rain, once in a while..."

"I wish that someday we can all go somewhere where it rains a lot," Mana said. "Where they have a whole season of rain. And we can stand like this again and stare up at it while it just washes over us."

"That's a very specific wish," Atem said, laughing. "What kind of place has an entire season of rain?"

"I bet there's somewhere," said Mana. "The world is big, right?"

Mahad nodded, his eyes drawn away by something he wasn't quite sure he could see.

"Yes..." he murmured, tightening his grip on their shoulders as though he could press them together and make sure that they never disappeared from each other. "The world is very big..."

The skies opened up over Tokyo. The rainy season had begun.

Yami no Yugi stared up into the sky, his umbrella hanging open at his side.

The water ran down his face in waterfalls, sticking his hair to his face and his clothes to his skin. He probably shouldn't do this. He might get Yugi sick. But there was...something about the downpour. Something familiar. Like wish long forgotten.

For a brief moment, he felt the warm presence of his monsters at his side, the Dark Magician Girl and the Dark Magician appeared briefly beside him in the rain. Or was that just his imagination?

 _See_ , he thought he heard someone whisper. _There is a place with a season of rain...and we_ did _come here together._


	4. The Afternoon of That Day

**Prompt #4 is Underworld**

* * *

Princes are not allowed to cry. At least, that's what people seem to believe. Mana thinks it's a dumb rule. Everyone has to cry sometimes. But there are so many people everywhere today, waiting for the king to finally pass on, whispering about how proud they are of the prince being so stoic and unfeeling in the face of tragedy.

Mana doesn't understand how that makes a good king. Good kings should know when to cry, right?

Either way, she knows he's heard their whispers, too, and he always wants so badly to be the person he thinks his people needs, so he hasn't let himself cry. Not even a single tear, even though his papa was laying on his deathbed and barely able to make a sound, the sickness having taking so much from him that he was almost just bones covered in skin in the shape of a person.

But even a prince could get hurt from trying to hold tears in for too long.

She finds him in the gardens, up inside a tree hidden in the crook of the branches so that the leaves can hide him. She doesn't call out or ask if she can come up, she just grabs the trunk and shimmies up it, settling down onto the branch beside him. They don't talk. There aren't any good words. So she just puts her hand on top of his while he buries his face into his knees.

He is the first one to speak.

"Mana," he says. "What do you think the underworld is like?"

Mana blinks. She bites her lip. She doesn't know. She's never thought about it. She doesn't like to think about death and what comes after, not when there is so much light and happiness to be found here. Why pay attention to the second life when the first one is here, waiting to be lived?

"Because all of the stories say it's dark," Atem says. "That it's the place where Ra goes every night, and sometimes, Ra almost doesn't make it out. That all of the pharaohs have to go through the same path after they die."

"That's why we give them the book and the boat," Mana says. "So that they can find their way."

"Find their way where?" says Atem, his head shooting up and his eyes red-rimmed with uncried tears. "Where? Where will he go? Is he going to be in that dark place for ever? By himself? How will I find him when I die?"

He is crying now, the tears rolling down his cheeks and his shoulders shaking and his knees bumping together and Mana has to hold his shoulders so that he doesn't tumble out of the tree.

"He'll be lonely. And it'll be dark and scary and he'll be all alone, but I'm not supposed to cry about it. Why am I not supposed to cry about it?"

She slides closer to him so that they are pressed together, her arms wrapped around him. His face buries itself into her shoulder. His arms slide around her and the tears start to roll across Mana's skin too.

"I don't think it's dark," she whispers. "I don't think it's dark there at all. Maybe it's dark on the way there, and it's kind of scary, and there's some monsters hiding in the shadows, but you just keep walking, like you do when you're living. Because there are monsters when you're living, too, they're just harder to see."

Atem's shoulders are calming down and he is crying more silently, listening.

"But after you get through the dark part, then you come out and it's all light and warm and all the people that you knew that went through the dark place first are waiting for you, waving, ready to hug you when you get there," she says. "And then you're happy, because you can be with all the people that you lost again, and you can wait for everyone else to come and be with you too."

Atem has stopped crying now, just tiny tears occasionally escaping from the corner of his eyes.

"Do you think so?" he says.

"Yep. That's what it's like."

"You're sure?"

"Uh-huh."

Atem's arms squeeze her tightly.

"Then if I go there first, I'll make sure I'm waiting to hug you when you get there," he mumbles into his shoulder. "So that you're not scared."

"You're the one that would be scared of the dark, silly," Mana said, petting his hair gently. "But thank you. And if I get there first, then I'll be the one waiting to hug you."

"Promise?"

Their hands curl together.

"Promise."


	5. These Overflowing Feelings Don't Stop

**Prompt #5 was AU/Crossover. The AU I chose to do is based off of a manga called NG Life, where the protagonist is reincarnated into the modern world and remembers his past life but no one else does, and his friends are also reincarnated without remembering. And his beloved wife from his past life is reincarnated as a boy~ So here we have Mana as Mariko, a girl that remembers her past life in Egypt but no one else, including her best friend Masaru, the reincarnation of Mahad, remembers. She is still looking for Atem in this life, and hoping to meet him again.**

* * *

 _Am I the only one that remembers?_

"Hey," Masaru Hideyoshi said, bopping her on the head with his notebook. "You look a million miles away. Have another dream about your past life?"

"It's your past life tooooooo," Mariko "Mana" Mitsumune moaned, sprawling out on her desk.

Masaru sent her an amused smile, and Mariko was immediately struck by an image of Mahad. She just about burst into tears, throwing herself at her best friend and hugging him around the neck.

"Aaaaugh, it was just that I dreamed about him again and we were rowing out on the Nile together and he pushed me in so I pulled him in after me and it was so much fun and I just wanna see him againnnnnn!"

"Whoa, whoa, slow down," Masaru said, awkwardly trying to pat her head but she was hugging him weirdly so his arms couldn't quite reach. "Okay, okay, I understand..."

Mariko popped back down to her feet, sniffling loudly. She could hear the other students in class talking in small groups, and more than one was talking about her.

" _Mariko-chan's at it again, huh?"_

" _She's always going crazy over something."_

" _I wonder what gets her so riled up?"_

The teacher hadn't arrived yet, so Mana sat down on top of her desk, folded her arms, and pouted.

"I just don't get it," she said. "Why am I the ONLY one that remembers!"

"Maybe your memories were just extra important to you," Masaru/Mahad said—gosh, it was so hard not to see Mahad superimposed over his face. "Tell me about it again."

"I've told you everything like a million times," Mariko sighed.

"I know, but I like the look you get on your face when you talk about it. It's cute."

Mariko flushed.

"D-don't say things like that, master!"

"And don't call me master in class, it's weird," said Masaru with a laugh. "Go ahead, I want to hear about it again."

"Fiiiine," Mariko moaned.

She paused for a minute.

"Okay, well three thousand years ago, I was an Egyptian called Mana, and you were Mahad. We lived in the palace. You were the court magician, and I was your apprentice, and we were best friends with the prince, Atem."

"Past lives _and_ magicians," Masaru said, smiling.

"Don't make fun of it!" said Mariko with a blush. "I'm taking a big leap of faith in you always telling about these things! I don't want you to think that I'm crazy!"

"I don't, I don't," Masaru said, holding up his hands. "Well, go on."

"There was a bunch of other priests, like Karim and Isis."

"Who reincarnated into your parents, right?"

"So weird," Mariko said. "I mean _those two_. Wow."

She frowned.

"There was Set and Shada and Akhenaden and Kisara too but I haven't met them in this life yet. Not that I _want_ to meet Akhenaden. He was Set's dad, remember? And Atem's uncle."

"Right, and he tried to take over the throne for Set, but Set didn't want anything to do with it," said Masaru, almost musing. "Wonder what kinda creep he is in this life. Anyway, yeah, that's the gist of it..."

She frowned and went quite. To his credit, Mahad—Masaru, get it right, Masaru—did not push. He had heard about the end part before, and knew better than to press Mana into talking about it. It wasn't your ordinary past life ending kind of story. Most of them were just like disasters, a volcano exploding, or maybe you just died of old age or something.

Most people's past lives probably didn't end with a demon rising out of hell and nearly destroying the entire world.

The door opened to admit the teacher and Mariko sighed, sliding off of her desk to plop into her seat. Maybe it was dumb, anyway. Most people didn't remember their past lives, so maybe she shouldn't either. She rested her head in her hands as the teacher mumbled about something.

 _Atem..._

There was just one thing she wanted, more than anything...she had found Mahad/Masaru, and some of her other past life friends, but what she wanted...was to meet her _best_ friend again...

A warmth spread over her cheeks as she thought about him. Atem, her prince, her best friend, the one she got into all kinds of trouble with all the time, the one that eventually kissed her while they were hiding inside that face and then gotten so adorably awkward about it afterwards.

 _I want to meet you...again..._

"And we have a new student joining us today...Shiina-san, would you come in please?"

Mariko was only half listening as the door opened again and someone stepped inside, walking to the center of the room...

And then she felt like the world had stopped.

Mariko burst up from her chair and half ran to the front of the room, throwing her arms around him.

"ATEM!" she cried with happiness. "I found you!"

"M-Mariko-chan, what are you doing?" the teacher said. "Go back to your seat!"

"Atem, I'm so happy, I finally found you, oh my goodness, I—"

Then she noticed something, and pulled back a little.

The girl in her arms blinked at her, looking confused. Mariko leapt back with a yelp.

"O-oh my goodness, I'm sorry, you totally looked like—I mean, I thought you were—"

Her classmates were laughing amongst themselves, not really meanly, but more like "oh there she goes again being weird." Mariko flushed a deep red, scurrying back.

"Gosh, I'm sorry, I mean..."

"Mariko-chan, go back to your seat," the teacher said. "You're probably scaring Atsuko-chan."

And then the new girl giggled. She moved a hand to her mouth to hide it but it was easy to see her shoulders shaking with a laugh. Mariko blinked with wide eyes. It was—it was exactly like Atem's laugh. Sure, she looked quite a bit different, with long black hair and dipped blond bangs that swept over the side of her face instead of the lightning bolt style she remembered, sure her skin was fair and her eyes were brown, but it was _Atem_ , giggling out at her.

"That has to be the best greeting I've ever gotten when I moved to a new school!" she said, laughing louder this time. "Gosh—I was so nervous and now I feel so much better. Thank you...what was your name again?"

"M-Mariko," Mariko said, blushing deeply. "I'm Mariko Mitsumune."

"I'm so pleased to meet you," the other girl said, smiling warmly. "I'm Atsuko Shiina. I hope we can be friends, Mariko-san, even though I'm not who you thought I was!"

Mariko ducked her head and blushed deeper, aware of the fact that Masaru was grinning like an idiot at the back of her head.

"Y-yeah," she said, glancing up at Atsuko and meeting her—Atem's—eyes. "I really hope so too, Ate—Atsuko-chan."

And then she smiled, a real one.

 _I found you._


	6. Eyes

**Prompt #6 was Escape from Trouble. Trigger warning for implied sexual harassment.**

* * *

Atem was used to Mana bursting into his room without warning and hiding under his bed, or in his closet. During the times he was supposed to be studying and thus he couldn't be attached at the hip to her like usual (Set was very adamant about making them spend time apart from each other sometimes for some reason), she was usually studying with Mahad, or more likely, getting into trouble. And thus, she would often bolt into his room, hide behind something, and wait until it all blew over because who was gonna follow her into the _prince's_ room to scold her?

Atem didn't mind being her shield. In fact, he often didn't mind abusing the fact that he was prince and all to cover her. She would have done the same for him if their roles were switched, and she often _did_ do the same for him when they snuck outside the palace and Atem's rank had to mean nothing if they wanted to avoid being recognized and hauled back to the palace.

What he wasn't used to, however, was her running into his room and hiding without even a word to him. Usually she was squealing or giggling and called to him over her shoulder what she had just done— _"I might have just eaten all the honey cakes and the cook is pissed!"_ or _"you should have seen the look on Set's face when I dropped that fish on his head!"_

But today…something was wrong.

Mana burst through the door, closed it behind her, and without even a sound, crawled around him and under the desk so that she was curled up beneath the desk near his feet.

Atem glanced up from his scroll. She had been so abnormally quiet that he hadn't fully registered she was there until he felt her moving past him.

"Mana?" he said. "Is something wrong? Did you get into trouble again?"

She didn't answer. He felt a twitch in his heart—what was wrong? Mana _never_ got quiet.

Frowning, he stood up from his desk and peeked under.

"Mana?"

Her face was buried into her knees and she was shaking. Atem felt something tighten. Who had made her upset?

Before talking to her again, he walked to the door, opened it, and peered out. Usually, he would see someone chasing after her down the hall, and they might hesitate to ask him if knew where she had gone.

But there was no one. The hall was empty.

Frowning, Atem closed the door and locked it, just in case. He didn't want to be disturbed until he was certain Mana was okay.

He returned to the desk and knelt down, tilting his head to look under.

"Mana?" he said again. "Hey, are you…are you okay?"

Mana shifted, and he heard her sniffle loudly.

"I'm in trouble," she whispered.

"You're always in trouble, Mana," Atem said. "We're always in trouble together. Something is really wrong, isn't it?"

"It's—it's a different kind of trouble," she said.

She managed to lift her head, then, although it almost touched the bottom of the desk. She looked kinda cramped in there. Her eyes peered up over her knees, and he could see they were full of tears.

"Mana?" Atem whispered, reaching out to touch her knee.

She actually flinched at the touch and he drew back with surprise.

"I—sorry," Mana sniffled, looking down at her knees again. "I'm sorry. I'm kinda…twitchy…"

She tried to smile and failed. With a groan, she buried her face into her knees again.

Atem didn't try to reach out to her this time, feeling his heart pound in his chest. What was wrong? What had happened to Mana to make her like this?

"It's okay," he said. "You don't have to let me touch you if you don't want to. You don't have to talk if you don't want to, either…I'm just worried. So I'll be right here, okay?"

He waited for her head to nod vaguely. He waited another few seconds on his knees, and then slowly began to stand back up so that he could go back to his work, although he knew his mind would not be on it.

Mana's hand snaked out from under the table, then, gripping at the hem of his tunic.

"Will you please stay?" she said. "I'm scared."

Atem immediately dropped back down so that he was level with Mana.

"Of course," he said. "As long as you need. Is there anything else I can do?"

Mana shook her head very quickly, but her eyes peeked up over her knees again.

"Prince?" she said. "Do you remember that new scribe your dad hired a few weeks ago?"

"Sort of," Atem said. "Is he the one we switched his ink jar with honey?"

"Yeah, that one," said Mana, smiling faintly. "That was really funny, right?"

"It was hilarious," said Atem, grinning.

Mana's smile got a little stronger.

"Well, um…I thought I'd prank him again. Cause he was really funny when he got all mad and stuff, and I was kinda bored. So I was gonna use some sap to stick a few of his pages together so that it would hard to turn them, and I went to his writing station to do it, but then he came out of nowhere…"

"He didn't get mad at you, did he? Did he hurt you?"

Atem tensed at the very thought of it. Sure, Mana's pranks were annoying, he had been victim of them himself, but she was completely harmless—plus, she was an important member of the court. New or not, the scribe should know better.

Mana shook her head quickly.

"N-no, he didn't, I mean, he…he didn't attack me or anything. He actually seemed—kinda nice for a few minutes, at least…"

She laughed a little nervously. Atem started to reach out for her, but then remember how she had reacted before and drew back.

"He asked me if I was the one that switched the ink and I said yes…and he laughed and said something like…I don't really remember, I was kind of flustered, but something like he didn't expect the prankster to be someone so cute…"

She shuddered as she hugged her knees tighter.

"And then I don't know but he was really close and he was asking if I was anyone's and I said I was just my own because you can't own a person and he _laughed_ , and then he…he put his hand on my waist and I told him not to but he said since I didn't have anyone else it was okay, right? And then he tried to pull me towards him and I—I attacked him, Atem, I shot a fireball at his face because he wouldn't let go and I was so scared and he wasn't listening, and he got so angry and he tried to hit me so I ran and I came here and gods, Atem, he's not going to keep following me is he? I'm so scared."

The longer she talked, the angrier Atem got. How dare he? How _dare_ he? Who did he think he was that he could touch his best friend when she didn't want to be touched?

"He'll get me in trouble, won't he? Because I attacked him, oh gods, Mahad will be so mad, I shot a fireball at a non-magician, I wonder if he'll stop being my master—"

"Mana," Atem said softly, trying not to show her how angry he was. In this condition, she might think he was angry at _her_ , and not at the guy that had made her so upset. "Mana, it's okay."

"I _attacked_ him, Atem. I attacked him. I'm not supposed to use my magic on non-magicians unless it's an emergency, much less actually attack someone!"

"It _was_ an emergency," Atem said. "He wasn't listening, and he was making you feel unsafe. You were completely all right in doing what you did."

Mana peeked up at him again, tears rolling down her cheeks.

"Are you sure?" she said. "Really?"

"Really really sure," Atem said. "I'm sorry that you didn't burn his whole face off, actually."

Mana almost giggled but it was choked out by another sob.

"I'm scared," she said. "What if he gets me in trouble? What if he comes again? I don't want him to touch me. He made me feel so scared."

"He's not going to get anywhere near you," Atem said. "I promise. In fact, I'll make sure he never gets anywhere near this palace or even the city ever again. I'll get him kicked out."

"But…"

"He kept trying to get close to you when you said no, I don't want a person like that working around here," Atem said. "Besides the fact that he made _you_ feel unsafe, which is bad enough, he could do that to other people in the court. My father won't want that to happen."

"A-are you going to tell your father what happened?" Mana asked.

Atem had been planning on going straight out and telling _everyone_ that the new scribe was a no-good terrible piece of human flesh, but the way her voice trembled made him pause.

"Well…I'll just tell him that the guy isn't good around here," Atem said. "He'll listen. I won't say anything more if you don't want me to."

Mana visibly relaxed.

"Oh…no it's okay, you can tell him…I just don't want him to think that I did something that made him do that…like maybe I shouldn't have pranked him…"

"No," Atem said fiercely. "It had nothing to do with that. You prank everyone, Mana, and do you see any of them doing that to you? No, this guy is just a total piece of garbage."

"Really?"

"Really really."

Mana sighed as she buried her face into her knees again.

"Um, prince…? I kinda want a hug, but I don't want to move…"

Atem had to smile.

"It's fine," he said, crawling under the desk to snuggle beside her, wrapping his arms around her shoulders. "As long as you're okay with this."

"Uh-huh," Mana said. She buried her face into his shoulder and sighed. "You feel much safer…can I always come and hide here when I need to escape?"

"Always," Atem promised. "Always forever and ever."

"Good," she whispered. "Good…"

And they just sat there, quietly, snuggled together beneath the desk, listening to each other's quiet breaths. Together.

Safe.


	7. Overlap

_The present cannot exist without the past. That is something that everyone understands. The past is what the present is built upon. What few people realize, however, is that the past can often not exist without the present._

"I waited for you."

"I know."

"You're mean, for making me wait."

"I know, I'm the meanest meanie, right?"

"You're the meanest meanie meaner."

A laugh.

"That mean, huh?"

"That mean."

 _The past does not exist unless the present acknowledges it. One can move forward in a present day, and forget what happened in a past day. The past is what we see from the present, and if we do not look closely enough, then is the past really there?_

"I'm sorry."

"You really do have to make it up to me."

"I know. I'll do whatever it takes."

"You can start with a hug."

"That's simple enough."

"...two hugs."

Another laugh.

"That might be pushing it, little missy."

 _The past can only influence the present if we let it._

 _If one does not acknowledge the past, or remember it, then does it really matter at all?_

 _The present, then, determines the past. As much as the present is built on the past, the past is filtered through the present, until we remember only what we chose to remember._

"...I missed you."

"I did too..."

"Are you crying?"

"Well, it doesn't appear to be raining...so yes. I guess I'm crying."

"Stop that, you'll make me cry too."

"Haven't you been crying this whole time?"

"Shhh. It was a secret."

"Right."

"...I really, really missed you."

A sigh.

"I know...and I'm so sorry."

"Just...keep holding me, okay?"

"Okay."

 _The past and the present must exist intertwined, always. One will not exist without the other._

"You're still crying, prince."

"So are you."

"No, I'm not."

A soft kiss to the forehead.

"I love you."

"I love you the mostest."

"I love you just as much as whatever that is."

"Just shush, and keep hugging me."

"Okay."

 _And at the end of the threads of past and present...perhaps the future will lie there._

 _We can only keep walking until we find it._


End file.
